EPO and Russian
patent office sign co-operation agreement

The President
of the European Patent Office (EPO), Benoît Battistelli, and the Director
General of the Federal Service for Intellectual Property of the Russian Federation
(Rospatent), Dr Boris Simonov, signed a Memorandum of Understanding this week on joint
activities to further develop co-operation in IP matters.

"The EPO
and Russian patent office have a long history of co-operation that is beneficial
for both sides," said EPO President Battistelli. "Russia is Europe's
third largest trading partner and draws significant volumes of EU foreign
investment. Our continued collaboration will help strengthen the patent system
in Russia
and align it more closely with the European patent system, which should be a
boon to companies doing business there. It will also further
unlock access to a large amount of Russian technical knowledge to EPO patent
examiners and innovators around the globe."

Under the four-year
agreement, the two offices will work together in key areas such as human
resources training and development, patenting procedures and processing, and
data exchange. The planned activities will build on work that has already been
done.

The memorandum of
understanding was signed in Geneva
on 27 September by the heads of the two offices at a bilateral meeting on the
sidelines of the annual WIPO General Assembly.